Proper name for characters 1

[razalas]

I know the proper names for the following characters:

~ tilde
# octothorpe
^ caret
& ampersand
* asterisk
() parentheses
{} braces
[] brackets
/\ slash
| vertigule

but are there proper names for the following other than the common names formed by describing how they are used?

@ "at" sign
$ "dollar" sign
% "percent" sign
+ "plus" sign
- "minus" sign
= "equals" sign
_ underline

And, I am comfortable with the common names of the following, but maybe they have their own proper names?

! exclamation mark
? question mark

Just curious.

TIA

"Code what you mean,
and mean what you code!
But by all means post your code!"

Razalas

 

[strongm]

>octothorpe

Only in very limited circles. More commonly known (at least by me) as 'hash' or in extreme circumstances as 'square'

>vertigule
Have to say I have never heard it called this. In fact, I've never heard the word before. Ooh, and a quick search on Google suggests Google has never heard of it before either...

 

[razalas]

Sorry,

misspelled name of "|" as "vertigule" instead of "verticule".

I found this name at the following link from google:

http://dactyl.som.ohio-state.edu/Humdrum/guide08.html

"Code what you mean,
and mean what you code!
But by all means post your code!"

Razalas

 

[strongm]

Yep - and that seems to be about the only reference (for verticule). I wouldn't take a single citation as being definitive.

 

[ESquared]

From my head, not necessarily definitive:

_ underscore, not underline
^ caret, aka circumflex
# pound sign is more common than octothorpe
{} curly braces (not simply braces)
[] square brackets (not simply brackets)
! exclamation point, not mark
/ forward slash
\ backslash (yes, one word)

More symbols or diacritics:

[´] acute accent mark
[à] grave accent mark (on letter a)
[¨] umlaut, diaeresis
[¸] cedilla
[æ] ligature
[…] ellipsis
? breve (not sure it will display correctly)
? ogonek (not sure it will display correctly)

The word virgule popped into my head, and it seems to be another name for the forward slash. So perhaps verticule is formed from "vertical virgule."

You can see most of these at Wikipedia - Diacritic marks.

-------------------------------------
A sacrifice is harder when no one knows you've made it.

 

[ChrisHunt]

# pound sign is more common than octothorpe

Depends what side of the Atlantic you're on. Over here in the UK, "[£]" is the pound sign. The "sign" we use for a pound in weight is the letters "lb".

Both derive (I believe) from the Latin "libra", [£] evolving from a stylised letter L.

We've got used to calling "#" a hash sign in recent years - though I think some (musical) people might also describe it as a "sharp" symbol. I don't think anybody, anywhere, would use the term "octothorpe".



-- Chris Hunt

http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk

http://www.napitalia.org.uk

http://www.leicesteryha.org.uk

 

[Dimandja]

The following is how programmers - at least - call these things:

{ open brace, open curly
} close brace, close curly
( open parenthesis, open paren
) close parenthesis, close paren
[ open bracket
] close bracket
. period, dot
! exclamation point, bang, not
| bar, vertical-bar, or, or-bar (actually a "vertical virgule")
& ampersand, and, reference, ref
* asterisk, multiply, star, pointer
/ slash, divide
// slash-slash, comment
# pound
\ backslash, (sometimes "escape")

 

[MakeItSo]

£ evolving from a stylised letter L

Yep. If I'm not mistaken, it represents a striked-through L for "Libra, but not the weight" to clearly distinguish it from the weight-pounds L (although it is Lb)

Concerning exclamation mark or point:
Is one truly incorrect, or does it depend on your location?
My dictionary returns me both expressions, without explicitely stating one as AE, the other as BE or so.

So is it mark or point - and why?

 

[Dimandja]

Here is a link to the 'mark of admiration'.. ahem... I mean the exclamation thingy:

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Exclamation_mark

 

[MakeItSo]

Thanks a lot, Dimandja! <---exclamation mark or point
I have never heard of an "Interrobang" before. I always used a question mark followed by an exclamation mark in that case, now there's all in one.
I'd say: Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't!
:-D

 

[ESquared]

Oh... I've also heard | called a pipe. From DOS/Unix no doubt in its function of redirecting a program's output to the input of another program.

-------------------------------------
A sacrifice is harder when no one knows you've made it.

 

[PWD]

Wow! (Exclamation mark as per Queen's (or King's) English).

Can't you waste a lot of time hunting around and looking at all these definitions? I like the Spanish 'gnaborretni'.

Des.

 

[CajunCenturion]

We've got used to calling "#" a hash sign in recent years - though I think some (musical) people might also describe it as a "sharp" symbol.

Quite true. Not only do musicians play in the key of C#, my understanding is that a number of programmers are now playing in this key as well.

Good Luck
--------------
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[ericbrunson]

Then you can get into combinations...

Unix scripters know #! is a shebang.

C programmers wrap ther comments in a /* (slashsterix) and an */ (asterslash).

 

[sha76]

I've heard {} refered to as French braces.
I recall someone once posting here the proper names for / and \, although I'm afraid I can't remember them.

"Your rock is eroding wrong." -Dogbert

 

[columb]

/ is called a solidus when used to separate tne numerator and denominator in fractions - thank you [

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Solidus.html

]. I'm not sure whether this is true when used, for example, as the seperator in *nix pathnames.

Personnally I prefer to call it slash

 

[KenCunningham]

Des,

"Can't you waste a lot of time hunting around and looking at all these definitions? I like the Spanish 'gnaborretni'."

You certainly can. Personally, I quite like the English 'thingy' for such characters. An alternative is 'doofah', of course, but that's more correctly applied to a remote control that's gone missing, usually down the side of an armchair.

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

The following is how programmers - at least - call these things:

( open parenthesis, open paren
) close parenthesis, close paren
[ open bracket
] close bracket
# pound

Being a programmer, I can honestly say I've never used the term "open bracket" or "close bracket" to refer to [ or ]. I've always called ( and ) open and close brackets, and [ and ] open and close square brackets.

As for the # - I've always known it as a hash symbol, and am always cnofused when people (usually American) refer to it as a pound symbol... If they call # a pound, what do they call a £?.

Dan

 

[PWD]

Ken, that reminds me of what my late Father used to call a saved, stubbed out cigarette as it would "do-fer" later.

Des.

 

[PWD]

Dan, I don't know what the Americans call £ but I'm worried that our Government call it "1.50 Euros". Hey, who stole the Euro symbol from my keybooard. What's that all about, then?